The increase in remote work and e-learning sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic means more people are reading in digital formats, from eye-straining, small-text documents to PDFs that have embedded pictures and graphics. But there鈥檚 a bigger problem 鈥� the technology doesn鈥檛 lend itself easily to help enhance reading speed or comprehension.
Other than being able to change font size and background lighting, digital readers are left with few options. That鈥檚 why the 麻豆原创 is partnering with global software company Adobe and others to improve the technology. This partnership is being highlighted today at the Adobe Max 2020 Creativity Conference that鈥檚 being held online this year.
麻豆原创 specifically is working with Adobe on a digital reading project that aims to reduce information overload. The project is part of Adobe鈥檚 continuing efforts toward creating products that empower people to change the world, such as its recent collaboration with a 麻豆原创-spin-off, the nonprofit Limbitless Solutions Inc.
The initiative includes a consortium of industry, nonprofit and university collaborators, including Readability Matters, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of Arizona.
Using Adobe鈥檚 Liquid Mode technology, a reader can adjust text aspects 鈥� such as font size, style and character spacing 鈥� on PDFs that were previously set to a fixed text style and layout. 麻豆原创 researchers, meanwhile, are building tools to match readers to reading formats that enhance their speed and comprehension.
鈥淚n early studies we have been able to accelerate some adults鈥� reading by more than 25 percent,鈥� says Ben Sawyer, an assistant professor in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of Industrial Engineering & Management Systems leading the research at 麻豆原创.
鈥淚f your job requires you to read multiple hours a day, this is a huge potential workload reduction,鈥� he says.
Reading is important for job success and civic engagement as poor reading skills are associated with unemployment, lower wages and voter apathy, according to studies from the National Center for Education Statistics.
With the advent of the pandemic, people are reading more electronic books, and remote learning has meant an increase in instruction and assignments through digital documents with fixed text.
But large screens, such as on personal computers, are not always readily available for people reading documents remotely, says Rick Treitman, entrepreneur in residence at Adobe, and Zoya Bylinskii, a research scientist at Adobe. Treitman and Bylinskii are facilitating the research.
Instead, people may have to use a tablet or smartphone if they don鈥檛 have their own computer or if they have to share a single computer with other family members.
鈥淲e are seeing that a lot of remote learning is happening on phones because someone else in the household may be using the only computer,鈥� Treitman says. 鈥淚t’s yet another device, and so if we can make the PDF experience on the phone better, then one student could do their reading on the phone, while another uses the laptop.鈥�
Furthermore, when text is fixed into a certain style and layout in a document, it can cause problems as everyone sees text differently, so one text format doesn鈥檛 fit all, Treitman says.
For instance, one person may see normally spaced text as all scrunched together, thus hindering their reading. However, with digital text, this is a problem that can be easily addressed if readers can create their personal reading formats, as they can in Adobe Reader鈥檚 Liquid Mode.
For instance, even on older digital documents that may be already set in a small font size with tight spacing, a reader using the technology could adjust the text to suit their needs.
This takes control of the text display from the designer and gives it to the user, Treitman says.
鈥淲e’re flipping the script,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 why we鈥檝e turned to 麻豆原创 and others to start this research. Text has always been designed by the author or by the publisher, and now we’re letting the reader design it. That’s a whole new paradigm.鈥�
Sawyer鈥檚 team is currently collecting readability data from a large number of readers through the lab鈥檚 research website, Readabilitylab.xyz.
Sawyer says they hope to soon bring some of their participants into the lab for electrophysiological monitoring to record the electrical activity of the brain while a person reads; track people鈥檚 eye movements as they read digital text; and measure people鈥檚 reading speed and comprehension of different passages of digital text.
鈥淐OVID-19 is a challenge to in-person research, so we are testing 3D-printed eye-and-brain activity trackers and webcam reading tracking, all in an attempt to collect lab-quality data from people in their homes,鈥� Sawyer says.
Current study participants are adult readers, but the researchers plan to expand their work to include younger and older readers, as well as non-English readers.
鈥淥ur initial research has told us that there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution,鈥� he says. 鈥淟ike a pair of prescription eyeglasses, we want to provide a reading experience personalized to an individual.鈥�
Some of the lab鈥檚 findings have already been incorporated into existing Adobe software.
Sawyer鈥檚 collaborators include Benjamin Wolfe, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, and Jonathan Dobres, a consulting psychophysics scientist with a doctorate in cognitive sciences. Esat Boucaud and Sarah Minion, laboratory assistants in Sawyer鈥檚 Virtual Readability Lab, are also supporting the initiative. Boucaud is a sophomore majoring in computational physics, and Minion is a junior majoring in electrical engineering, both at 麻豆原创.
Sawyer says not only will the research efforts help workers and students read digital documents better, it will also help reduce information overload.
鈥淣othing about the modern world is trending toward delivering us less information,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hese technologies can provide some relief from that and can give people help with reading.鈥�
Sawyer received his doctorate in human factors psychology and master鈥檚 in industrial engineering from 麻豆原创 and completed his postdoctoral studies at MIT. He joined 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of Industrial Engineering & Management Systems, part of 麻豆原创鈥檚 College of Engineering and Computer Science, in 2018. He is also director of LabX, an applied neuroscience group addressing human performance, and a joint faculty member of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Institute for Simulation and Training, School of Modeling Simulation and Training.
